Will Grohmann (born 4 December 1887 in

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin () is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree river. In 2018 the town's population was 39,087. Until 1868, its German name was ''Budi ...

; died 6 May 1968 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) was a German art critic and art historian specialized in German Expressionism and abstract art. He was known as the "godfather of modernism".

Life and work

From 1908 to 1913 Grohmann studied oriental languages with special emphasis on

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

at the universities of Paris and Leipzig. Though he wrote his PhD thesis in Germanic literature, entitled ''Vers oder Prosa im hohen Drama des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts'' (1914), and taught languages at school, where Erich Kästner was one of his pupils, he devoted his life to art research and publishing. He was interested in the painters of

Die Brücke The Brücke (Bridge), also Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later memb ...

and supported the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

. After the First World War, he wrote many entries for the

Thieme-Becker Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists. Thieme-Becker The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was complet ...

and articles for the periodical '' Der Cicerone''. He also published books on his friend,

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century ...

. He was also a friend of

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the w ...

. From 1926 to 1933 Grohmann worked at the Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. In 1933 he was dismissed by the Nazis because he had an all too positive view of modern art. However, he continued publishing articles for newspapers under the pseudonym of Olaf Rydberg. During the Second World War he researched the safer fields of archaeology and the art of migratory people. From 1945 to 1947 he was professor and rector at the Hochschule für Werkkunst, Leipzig. In 1947 he moved to West Berlin because of political differences, becoming professor at the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

in 1948. Until his death, he continued championing abstract artists, including such post-war artists as

Willi Baumeister Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life Born in ...

, Rupprecht Geiger, Theodor Werner and Fritz Winter. Grohmann published over 500 essays on more than 150 artists, among them Edvard Munch,

Ernst Barlach Ernst Heinrich Barlach (2 January 1870 – 24 October 1938) was a German expressionist sculptor, medallist, printmaker and writer. Although he was a supporter of the war in the years leading to World War I, his participation in the war made hi ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and Joan Miró, and about 1,300 newspaper articles, not to mention his many catalogue forewords. In the 1950s and 60s, he was also one of the most influential German art critics to appear on radio and television. Furthermore, he was engaged in curating important exhibitions and "played a significant role in drawing international attention to the avant-garde".Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: In the Network of Modernism
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References

Select publications

*''The Drawings of Paul Klee''. New York: C. Valentin, 1944 *''The Intimate Sketchbooks of Georges Braque''. Paris: Verve, A. Zwemmer, 1955 *''Karl Schmidt-Rottluff''. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1956 *''Art Since 1945''. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958 *''Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work''. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958 *''Ernst Ludwig Kirchner''. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer 1958 *''Braque''. Greenwich, CN: New York Graphic Society, 1962 *''Oskar Schlemmer: Zeichnungen und Graphik. Oeuvrekatalog''. Stuttgart: Hatje, 1965 *''Willi Baumeister: Life and Work''. New York: H. N. Abrams 1966 *''Wassily Kandinsky: Eine Begegnung aus dem Jahre 1924''. Berlin: Friedenauer Presse, 1966 *''Paul Klee''. New York: H.N. Abrams 1967

External links

Dictionary of Art Historians: Will Grohmann
* ttp://www.staatsgalerie.de/archive_e/grohmann_detail.php Staatsgalerie Stuttgart: Will Grohmann - Pioneer of Modernismbr>Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: In the Network of Modernism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grohmann, Will 1887 births 1968 deaths People from Bautzen People from the Kingdom of Saxony German art historians German male non-fiction writers

Life and work

References

Select publications

Further reading

External links